Related Quotes

Company Profile

“Australia is nestled in a sweet spot between China and India and is well supported in south-east Asia, with the middle class growth."

Airline capacity between Australia and China, Singapore and Malaysia has increased substantially over the last year, helping to drive tourism growth.

Chief executive of Sovereign Hill in Ballarat
Jeremy Johnson
sees his growth coming from south-east Asia, the Philippines and South Korea

“About one quarter of Sovereign Hill’s annual 700,000 ticketed visitors are international and about one third of the 300,000 mainland Chinese visiting Victoria visit Sovereign Hill," Mr Johnson said.

The success has been so great, the operator has established a marketing office in Shanghai and has 28 Mandarin speaking guides at the Ballarat venue, even producing maps in Chinese.

Mr Johnson, also the Victorian Tourism Industry Council chairman, said the proximity to Australia was an advantage and business connections that drive recreational tourism could be expected once the free trade with South Korea was signed.

Lunar New Year

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released Tuesday, overseas visitors arrivals jumped by 7.2 per cent to 6.45 million for the year ended January 31.

The figures included a 15.5 per cent spike to 548,100 in the month of January amid Lunar New Year celebrations that drove a two-thirds rise in the number of arrivals from mainland China and an 81 per cent rise from Hong Kong arrivals.

Tourism & Transport Forum chief executive
Ken Morrison
said while the massive jumps were due to the Lunar New Year occurring in January this year rather than February in 2013, the figures were significantly higher than in January 2012, when the holiday also fell. “Compared to January 2012, arrivals from China were up 25.2 per cent, Hong Kong up 15.8 per cent, Malaysia up 39.3 per cent and Singapore up 35.3 per cent," he said.

“On any comparison it’s a strong result which also demonstrates the attractiveness of Australia as a destination for Lunar New Year travel, as well as the importance of aviation capacity to growing demand."

Tourism Australia on Monday was voted Asia’s best destination marketeer for the second year at the annual Routes Asia awards in Malaysia. Capacity growth has been driven by carriers like China Southern, Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia X and Scoot.For Park Hyatt Sydney general manager
Andrew Mensforth
, it’s the level of service that is making a difference.

The hotel has a team of butlers who are fluent in languages such as Mandarin and they offer translated menus, noodle dishes and even recently had a Chinese television channel installed.

Accor’s Mr McGrath said to make the product attractive to the Asian markets it was important to build a strong brand in those countries to provide security and safety and an optimum service standard.

“Last year was a fantastic year and by the ways things started this year looks set to be as good," Mr Mensforth said.

“Things have picked up."

The January figures are the first ones released since ABS changed the methodology behind its overseas arrivals and departures data, leading it to revise figures back to July 2004.

Short-term departures by Australians continued to rise as well, with outbound travel rising by 9.8 per cent in the month of January to 665,400.